Drapery supporting bracket

ABSTRACT

A drapery supporting bracket, consisting of an L-shaped, plastic body member with a recess on the top and back surfaces for receiving a generally L-shaped, stamped, metal member that serves to rigidify the plastic body, there being provided a struck-out portion in the metal member, that extends across the bight of the &#39;&#39;&#39;&#39;L&#39;&#39;&#39;&#39; of the plastic body member and serves as a supporting brace, there also being provided channels in one leg of the plastic body member that receive depending flanges from the metal member, adjacent thereto, to rigidify the plastic body, there being also provided transverse recesses adjacent the ends of the elongated recesses in the plastic body that receive, in snap-on fashion, transverse projections on the metal member serving to rigidly fix the metal member and plastic body together as a unit.

United States Patent [1 1 Baker, Sr.

[ Nov. 4, 1975 [73] Assignee: Baker Drapery Corporation, Peoria,

[22] Filed: Feb. 15, 1973 [21] Appl. No.: 332,712

[52] US. Cl 16/94 D; 248/235; 248/200 [51] Int. Cl. A47H 1/04 [58] Field Of Search 16/87.4, 87.6, 87.8, 94, l6/95, 96; 248/250, 254, 245, 247, 235, 248, 200, 255-276 [56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 331,187 11/1885 DOW 248/235 571,519 11/1896 Griffin 248/247 678,112 7/1901 Callender 248/247 2,477,771 8/1949 Sanford 248/250 X 2,594,656 4/1952 Junkunc 248/264 X 3,029,465 4/1962 Graber et al.. 16/94 D 3,604,670 9/1971 Reeves 248/250 3,606,229 9/1971 Wall 248/235 FOREIGN PATENTS OR APPLICATIONS 452,133 5/1968 Switzerland 16/94 D 9/1963 Germany 16/94 D 7/1935 Austria 248/265 Primary Examiner-Roy D. Frazier Assistant Examiner-Peter A. Aschenbrenner Attorney, Agent, or Firm-Wegner, Stellman, McCord, Wiles & Wood 57 ABSTRACT A drapery supporting bracket, consisting of an L- shaped, plastic body member with a recess on the top and back surfaces for receiving a generally L-shaped, stamped, metal member that serves to rigidify the plastic body, there being provided a struck-out portion in the metal member, that extends across the bight of the L of the plastic body member and serves as a supporting brace, there also being provided channels in one leg of the plastic body member that receive depending flanges from the metal member, adjacent thereto, to rigidify the plastic body, there being also provided transverse recesses adjacent the ends of the elongated recesses in the plastic body that receive, in snap-on fashion, transverse projections on the metal member serving to rigidly fix the metal member and plastic body together as a unit.

l3'Claims, 7 Drawing Figures US. Patent Nov. 4, 1975 Sheet 1 of2 3,916,477

FIG.I

US. Patent Nov. 4, 1975 Sheet2 0f2 I 3,916,477

DRAPERY SUPPORTING BRACKET BACKGROUND OF THE PRESENT INVENTION In the 'past, generally L-shaped brackets have been provided for suspending the track or traverse rod for supporting draperies for movement. These prior brackets have had two major drawbacks, (1) they are quite costly to manufacture, and, (2) they frequently lack the necessary strength to carry the weight .of the drapery material, which in many cases, is quite significant.

One prior construction consists of an L-shaped bracket manufactured by extruding anelongated L- shaped member, and thereafter cutting the resulting L- shaped member into short lengths, such as 1 inch lengths. Thereafter, the side surfaces of the bracket are machined, the edges deburred, and the necessary apertures drilled into the segmented extrusion. The net result is a multiplicity of the machining operations, in addition to a rather costly basic extrusion.

A further disadvantage in this prior construction is that it requires painting which, of course, is an additional expense in the manufacturing operation.

It is therefore a primary object of the present invention to reduce the cost of drapery supporting brackets, while, at the same time, maintaining or increasing the rigidity of the bracket itself.

SUMMARY OF THE PRESENT INVENTION According to the present invention, an L-shaped drapery bracket is provided that has a reduced cost, while at the same time, maintains and even increases the rigidity of the bracket itself. Toward this end, a bracket assembly is provided that consists basically of anL-shaped, colored plastic molding recessed to receive a rigidifying L-shaped, stamped, metal member for support.

The L-shaped plastic molding has first and second legs that are both recessed to receive complementary and substantially coextensive legs of the L-shaped metal supporting member.

To increase the torque capacity of the L-shaped member, a struck-out, or tab portion, is provided extending from the metal member down onto an inclined surface in the plastic body where it abuts a shoulder against which it reacts in resisting the drapery bending torque on the plastic body member.

An additional feature is that axial channels are provided in the horizontal leg of the plastic body member that receive depending side flanges on the adjacent metal leg, to laterally rigidify the plastic body member.

Adjacent the ends of the elongated recesses in the plastic body member are provided transverse recesses that receive, in snap-on fashion, transverse projections on the ends of the legs of the L-shaped metal stamping.

In a further modificationof the present invention, a track assembly is provided that conceals'a major portion of the bracket from a front view thereof, thereby increasing the overall esthetic appearance of the drapery support.

Because the basic body of the bracket is plastic, a reduction in cost is effected, as well as molded color selection without any requirement for painting. The L- shaped metal member is a completely stamped part eliminating the requirement for hole drilling, cutting, or other machining operations, and the assembly cost of snapping the two parts together is far less than the machining and painting costs associated with the prior extruded bracket construction.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is an exploded view of a bracket assembly illustrated with a segment of traverse rod or track;

FIG. 2 is a bottom view of the metal member;

FIG. 3 is a top view of the plastic body member;

FIG. 4 is a top view of the completed assembly;

FIG. 5 is an end, or back view, of the plastic body member;

FIG. 6 is a cross section taken generally along line 6-6 of FIG. 5 of the bracket assembly without the track; and,

FIG. 7 is a perspective view of a somewhat modified form of the present bracket assembly.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT Referring to the drawings, and particularly FIG. 1, a bracket assembly 10 is illustrated in an exploded manner, in association with a traverse rod or track 12. The bracket assembly consists basically of an L-shaped plastic body member 14 recessed to receive a supporting L-shaped metal stamping member 16. The metal stamping 16 is snapped on the top and back surfaces of the molded plastic body member 14, and thereafter a track clip 17 is fastened to the resulting assembly by a threaded fastener 20.

The body member 14 is seen to consist of a generally horizontal leg member 22, interconnected with a generally vertical leg member 24, which is adapted to abut the vertical wall of the installation. The body member 14 has an elongated recess 26, in the horizontal leg member 22 approximately coextensive with the length thereof, along with an elongated recessed portion 27 in the vertical leg 24. Asseen more clearly in FIGS. 1, 3, and 6, the molded plastic body has an inclined surface 30'which terminates ajacent leg 24 in an upward projection 32.

There is provided at the end of recess 26, a generally transverse recess 36 that receives a portion of the metal stamping 16, as will appear hereinbelow.

A similar transverse recess 38 is provided adjacent the end of the recess 27 on the vertical leg 24 of the plastic body for similarly receiving another portion of the metal stamping 16.

Provided adjacent the side surfaces of the recesses 26 in the leg 22, are channels 40 and 41 that receive flanges 42 and 43 respectively, depending from the bottom surface of the metal stamping 16. The depending flanges 42 and 43 on the metal stamping 16 serve to transversely rigidify the plastic body member 14.

An aperture 46 is provided in leg 22 for receiving the threaded fastener 20, which extends through an elongated aperture 47 in the clip 17.

The L-shaped metal stamping 16 is quite simple to manufacture and requires no machining operations. It is assembled to the body portion 14 simply by snapping it in position. Toward this end, the metal member 16 has transverse end projections 50 and 51 on legs 53 and 54, respectively. The transverse projections 50 and 51 are spaced with respect to the transverse recesses 36 and 38 in the body member 14, so that the metal stamping 16 is simply snapped into position in the recesses 26 and 27.

As seen more clearly in FIGS. '1, 2, 4, and 6, the leg 53 of the metal member 16 has an elongated tab struckout portion 58 that serves as a brace for the bracket to increase the torque capacity of the L-shaped bracket. Toward this end, and as seen clearly in FIG. 6, the struck-out portion 58 extends at about a 20 angle from the horizontal, and rests on an angular surface 30 integrally molded with the plastic body member 14. The end60 of the struck-out tab engages surface 62 of the projection 32 on the plastic body as shown in FIG. 6. It is thus apparent that any downward torque on the bracket from the horizontal portion thereof will be partially absorbed by the abutment between the metal tab 60 and the projection 32.

The stamping 16 has an aperture 65 for receiving the end of threaded fastener 20. Also formed in the vertical leg 54 of the metal member and the vertical leg 24 of the plastic member are aligned apertures 63 and 64 wherefor receiving a wall fastener. Also another aperture 66 is provided in the lowermost portion of leg 24 for receiving another wall fastener.

A somewhat modified form of the present invention is shown in FIG. 7, wherein bracket 100 includes an L- s'haped plastic body portion 102 and an L-shaped metal member 104, fixed thereto by suitable means. Affixed to'the metal member 104 is a clip 117 for carrying the traverse rod 118, generally similar in construction to the traverse rod 12, shown in FIG. 1.

The clip 117 includes two portions, first, a forward downwardly projecting portion 119 formed integrally with the metal member 104 and bent slightly rearwardly and an S-curved snap portion 121 adjustable with respect to the forward portion 119.

The frame 118, which carries guides for the drapery supporting links, initially receives the forward projection 119 and thereafter a rearward projection 122 is snapped over the S-curved projection 121. The advantage in this construction is that'the bracket is largely concealed by the traverse rod 118, since it does not clamp over the forward portion of the bracket.

I claim:

1. A bracket assembly for a drapery traverse track, comprising, a generally L-shaped plastic body member having a generally vertical leg and a generally horizontal leg, an abutment surface formed on one of said legs, an L-shaped metal member having a generally vertical leg and a generally horizontal leg, said metal member interfitting with said plastic member for rigidifying the plastic body member, and a brace formed integral with one of said legs of said metal member and having a free end extending angularly toward the other of said legs of said metal member, said free end of said brace engaging with said abutment surface on the one leg of said plastic member for additional support.

2. A bracket assembly for a drapery track as defined in claim 1, wherein said metal member is a metal stamping. 3.-A bracket assembly for a drapery track as defined in claim 1, including a spring clip attached to one leg of the L-shaped members for supporting a drapery track.

4. A bracket assembly for a drapery track as defined in claim 1, wherein said brace is formed on the horizontal leg of the metal member and abuts and reacts against said abutment surface formed on the vertical leg of said plastic body member.

5. A bracket assembly for a drapery track as defined in claim 5, wherein'one of the legs of said plastic body member has a pair of channels therein, the adjacent leg of the metal member has a pair of flanges depending therefrom and received in said channels for rigidifying the plastic body member.

6. A bracket assembly for a drapery track as defined in claim 5, wherein said one leg of the plastic body is the horizontal leg.

7. A bracket assembly for a drapery track as defined in claim 5, including a pair of transverse recesses adjacent the ends of the legs of the plastic body member, said metal member having projections at the ends of each of the legs thereof received in said recesses for holding the metal member to the plastic body member.

8. A bracket assembly for a drapery track as defined in claim 5, said plastic body member having transverse recesses adjacent the ends of the outside surface of each of said legs, said metal body member having transverse projections at the ends of said legs, said projections being received in said transverse recesses in said legs of the plastic body member, said projections being sized with respect to said transverse recesses so that the metal member straps on the outside surface of the plastic body member. I

9. A bracket assembly for a drapery track as defined in claim 1, wherein said metal member is nested in elongate recesses formed in said outside surface of the plastic body member.

10. A bracket assembly for a drapery track as defined in claim 5, wherein the horizontal legs of said bracket comprise a track suspending portion, clip means on said horizontally extending legs, a track, an elongated, generally vertical recess in the track spaced from the forward portion thereof, said clip means having a first projection received in said recess in the track, and said clip means having a second projection for snap-on receipt by said track.

11. A bracket assembly as defined in claim 10, wherein said second snap-on projection of said clip means fits over a projection at the rear of said track.

12. A bracket for supporting a drapery, comprising; a generally L-shaped plastic body member having first and second legs, elongated recesses in said first and second legs, a generally L-shaped metal member connected to said plastic body member for rigidifying the same, said L-shaped metal member having first and second legs received in the elongated recesses in the plastic body member, said plastic body member having channels in one of the legs thereof, said metal member having flanges depending therefrom that are received in the channels in the one leg of the plastic body member, transverse recesses adjacent the ends of the elongated recesses in the plastic body member, said metal member having transverse projections which snap into the transverse recesses in the plastic body member to hold the metal member to the plastic body member, and clip means fixed to one leg of the plastic body member for supporting a drapery track.

13. A bracket assembly for a drapery traverse track comprising a generally L-shaped plastic body member having a generally vertical leg and a generally horizontal leg, an angularly related supporting surface extending between said legs, an upwardly extending shoulder on said supporting surface, an L-shaped metal member for rigidifying the plastic body member, a brace formed integral with said metal member and extending angularly between the members and being supported on said supporting surface, and an endsurface on said brace abutting and reacting against said shoulder on said plastic body member for providing additional support between said horizontal and vertical legs. 

1. A bracket assembly for a drapery traverse track, comprising, a generally L-shaped plastic body member having a generally vertical leg and a generally horizontal leg, an abutment surface formed on one of said legs, an L-shaped metal member having a generally vertical leg and a generally horizontal leg, said metal member interfitting with said plastic member for rigidifying the plastic body member, and a brace formed integral with one of said legs of said metal member and having a free end extending angularly toward the other of said legs of said metal member, said free end of said brace engaging with said abutment surface on the one leg of said plastic member for additional support.
 2. A bracket assembly for a drapery track as defined in claim 1, wherein said metal member is a metal stamping.
 3. A bracket assembly for a drapery track as defined in claim 1, including a spring clip attached to one leg of the L-shaped members for supporting a drapery track.
 4. A bracket assembly for a drapery track as defined in claim 1, wherein said brace is formed on the horizontal leg of the metal member and abuts and reacts against said abutment surface formed on the vertical leg of said plastic body member.
 5. A bracket assembly for a drapery track as defined in claim 5, wherein one of the legs of said plastic body member has a pair of channels therein, the adjacent leg of the metal member has a pair of flanges depending therefrom and received in said channels for rigidifying the plastic body member.
 6. A bracket assembly for a drapery track as defined in claim 5, wherein said one leg of the plastic body is the horizontal leg.
 7. A bracket assembly for a drapery track as defined in claim 5, including a pair of transverse recesses adjacent the ends of the legs of the plastic body member, said metal member having projections at the ends of each of the lEgs thereof received in said recesses for holding the metal member to the plastic body member.
 8. A bracket assembly for a drapery track as defined in claim 5, said plastic body member having transverse recesses adjacent the ends of the outside surface of each of said legs, said metal body member having transverse projections at the ends of said legs, said projections being received in said transverse recesses in said legs of the plastic body member, said projections being sized with respect to said transverse recesses so that the metal member snaps on the outside surface of the plastic body member.
 9. A bracket assembly for a drapery track as defined in claim 1, wherein said metal member is nested in elongate recesses formed in said outside surface of the plastic body member.
 10. A bracket assembly for a drapery track as defined in claim 5, wherein the horizontal legs of said bracket comprise a track suspending portion, clip means on said horizontally extending legs, a track, an elongated, generally vertical recess in the track spaced from the forward portion thereof, said clip means having a first projection received in said recess in the track, and said clip means having a second projection for snap-on receipt by said track.
 11. A bracket assembly as defined in claim 10, wherein said second snap-on projection of said clip means fits over a projection at the rear of said track.
 12. A bracket for supporting a drapery, comprising; a generally L-shaped plastic body member having first and second legs, elongated recesses in said first and second legs, a generally L-shaped metal member connected to said plastic body member for rigidifying the same, said L-shaped metal member having first and second legs received in the elongated recesses in the plastic body member, said plastic body member having channels in one of the legs thereof, said metal member having flanges depending therefrom that are received in the channels in the one leg of the plastic body member, transverse recesses adjacent the ends of the elongated recesses in the plastic body member, said metal member having transverse projections which snap into the transverse recesses in the plastic body member to hold the metal member to the plastic body member, and clip means fixed to one leg of the plastic body member for supporting a drapery track.
 13. A bracket assembly for a drapery traverse track comprising a generally L-shaped plastic body member having a generally vertical leg and a generally horizontal leg, an angularly related supporting surface extending between said legs, an upwardly extending shoulder on said supporting surface, an L-shaped metal member for rigidifying the plastic body member, a brace formed integral with said metal member and extending angularly between the members and being supported on said supporting surface, and an end surface on said brace abutting and reacting against said shoulder on said plastic body member for providing additional support between said horizontal and vertical legs. 